In The Presence Of Our Ancestors: Southern Perspectives In African American Art Minneapolis Institute Of Art
On the other hand, in some cases coming to terms with our ancestors demands that we repudiate them—repudiate them for the damage they did to us or to other folks or the harm they did to history. Once more, it won’t matter to them but how we define ourselves in relation to the previous says every thing about our personal values right here in the present. That is what Ralph Ellison implies when he says that we cannot select our relatives but we can choose our “ancestors”—choose how to regard them and which ones of them to honor. Dr. Mullan...